The announcement coincided with its full-year results, with growth driven by its jewelry brands.
The Jewelry ABCs with Marla Aaron
The designer discusses her new collection and her epic London Fashion Week collaboration.
The New York City-based jewelry designer has found success by building her eponymous jewelry brand completely outside of traditional jewelry industry norms.
Her predominant design concept—a fine jewelry version of a carabiner that allows for infinite styling variations when mixed and matched with other locks, charms and chains, and which has garnered a legion of devoted fans—is itself an entirely unconventional piece of jewelry, combining functionality and utility with luxury.
Since her 2012 launch, the designer has developed a solid roster of retail accounts (Ylang 23 in Texas and Meter in San Francisco, among others) with an emphasis on independent companies over department stores and larger retailers.
“We’re so careful with the distribution,” she told me when I recently visited her new Diamond District showroom (more on that later). “We’re not sold in department stores. We want the stores that we’re with to go deep in the collection.”
Aaron has an uncanny ability to cultivate an authentic brand identity that continuously innovates and excites its customers while staying true to its essence, basically what every brand is trying to achieve in 2019.
This sense of who Aaron is as both person and company—she is irreverent and self-deprecating, yet substantive and classic—permeates the brand’s every pore, down to the staff photos on its website. Portraits with favorite foods? Genius.
“I think [jewelry] is an industry that’s struggling and you have to be willing to try new things,” she said. “Everything we do is an experiment.”
This fall, the designer unveiled a series of new projects and endeavors to entice her fan base, the most significant of which product-wise is the Alphabet Collection.
Marla Aaron locks, which have included different shapes over the years, from hearts to lightning bolts, have undergone their most serious makeover yet, now available in every letter of the alphabet.
Aaron teased the arrival of the alphabet locks at London Fashion Week in September, where “R” and “M” locks floated down the runway on the necks of Roland Mouret models.
The relationship between the two began, as they tend to do these days, when Mouret slid into Aaron’s DMs on Instagram. They had never met, but the fashion legend was a fan of Aaron’s work.
In February this year they met in London and the beginning of a collaboration bloomed, with Mouret asking Aaron to participate in his spring/summer 2020 runway show.
“In the first meeting he said, ‘I don’t want you to do anything special. I just want you to do what you do and bring it to my show,’” Aaron recalled.
Mouret had come equipped with Instagram images of women wearing Aaron’s designs, wanting to channel their same thrown-on, individual style.
“He wanted it to feel effortless and that they were carrying their emotions with the jewelry,” she explained.
The designers exchanged ideas, sketches and swatches in the months to come and Aaron was inspired to create new pieces.
“I can’t tell you how amazed I am at the generosity of Roland because when someone like that comes into your universe, it forces you to try new things and invariably new things happen,” she said.
Mouret loved Aaron’s Fordite (a material created from the car paint found on automobile factory floors, like the Ford factory in Detroit) pieces, for example. She created “supersized” Fordite and jasper disk earrings to make a serious runway impact ($1,200 to $2,000).
Then, she began imagining them as charms that could be attached to her locks. So she created “The Working Dot” ($575 in 18-karat gold), a piece that converts all of the earrings in her collection into charms.
As the show approached, Mouret informed Aaron that not all of the models cast would have pierced ears. So Aaron dreamed up “The Pierce-less Earring,” ($880 in 14-karat gold) a clip-on style sold individually that can be placed anywhere on the ear.
Aaron and a member of her team were on hand at the show and in the days leading up to it to assist with the styling efforts, led by 10 Magazine’s Sophia Neophitou. The stylist piled on the jewels, combining various chains and locks with the new Fordite and jasper earring-cum-pendants courtesy of The Working Dot, plus The Pierce-less Earring.
On the home front, Aaron’s also taken a baby step into retail.
Beginning this month, customers can make an appointment to visit the Marla Aaron New York City showroom to interact with the jewelry in person.
“I think it’s a really ideal scenario for people to come play with our jewelry,” she said, noting that customers were responding “really well” to the idea.
The Latest
Looking ahead, the retailer said it sees “enormous potential” in Roberto Coin’s ability to boost its branded jewelry business.
Jewelry trade show veterans share strategies for engaging buyers, managing your time effectively, and packing the right shoes.
Despite the rising prices, consumers continue to seek out the precious metal.
This little guy’s name is Ricky and he just sold for more than $200,000 at Sotheby’s Geneva jewelry auction.
Though its website has been down for a week, Christie’s proceeded with its jewelry and watch auctions on May 13-14, bringing in nearly $80 million.
Despite the absence of “The Allnatt,” Sotheby’s Geneva jewelry auction totaled $34 million, with 90 percent of lots sold.
Tradeshow risks are real. Get tips to protect yourself before, during and after and gain safety and security awareness for your business.
Lilian Raji gives advice to designers on how to make the most of great publicity opportunities.
The mining company wants to divest its 70 percent holding in the Mothae Diamond Mine in an effort to streamline its portfolio.
Why do so many jewelers keep lines that are not selling? Peter Smith thinks the answer lies in these two behavioral principles.
The “Argyle Phoenix” sold for more than $4 million at the auction house’s second jewels sale.
The annual list recognizes young professionals making an impact in jewelry retail.
Owner David Mann is heading into retirement.
While overall sales were sluggish, the retailer said its non-bridal fine jewelry was a popular choice for Valentine’s Day.
The mining giant also wants to offload its platinum business as part of an overhaul designed to “unlock significant value.”
Christie's is selling one of the diamonds, moving forward with its Geneva jewelry auction despite the cyberattack that took down its website.
The ad aims to position platinum jewelry as ideal for everyday wear.
Retailers can customize and print the appraisal brochures from their store.
The move follows a price-drop test run in Q4 and comes with the addition of a “quality assurance card” from GIA for some loose diamonds.
The site has been down since Thursday evening, just ahead of its spring auctions.
The late former U.S. Secretary’s collection went for quadruple the sale’s pre-sale estimate.
Three fifth graders’ winning designs were turned into custom jewelry pieces in time for Mother’s Day.
Kimberly Adams Russell is taking over the role from her father, David Adams, marking the third generation to hold the title.
As a token of womanhood, this necklace depicts when Venus was born from the sea.
The deal gives the retailer control over the distribution of Roberto Coin jewelry in the U.S., Canada, Caribbean, and Central America.
Show your mother some love with a piece of fine jewelry.